Police say they continue to investigate the disappearance of an Edmonton teen who has been missing all summer.
Samuel Bird, who is 14, was last seen in June, when he left home to visit a friend in the city’s west end.
He left the friend’s house on foot but never returned home.
Officers say his disappearance is suspicious, and he has no phone or access to money.
The say Samuel is known to frequent the West Edmonton Mall and is familiar with both west and south Edmonton.
Insp. Sean Anderson says officers are “deeply attuned” to the national tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women and children, and their hearts go out to the boy’s family.
“The detectives investigating this case have been tirelessly following every lead since Samuel was reported missing in June and continue to do so. We never stop looking for missing people,” Anderson said Friday in a statement.
The Confederacy of Treaty 6 First Nations said Grand Chief Greg Desjarlais and Samuel’s family have formally asked police to designate Bird’s case a search and recovery operation.
It said in a statement that the designation would enable his family and First Nation to access further resources and personnel to increase search efforts.
It also said members of the public have taken it upon themselves to look for the boy, with social media complicating the investigation with false tips and narratives.
“This has been a time of deep pain and uncertainty for the family,” Coun. Cameron Alexis with Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation said in the statement.
“We’ve felt the compassion of the community. What we need now is co-operation — across jurisdictions, across systems — so we can carry out this search with the care, urgency and respect Samuel deserves.”
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